The War for All The Oceans

If you've read an introduction to the Napoleonic Wars, you probably know that the British Navy crushed the Franco-Spanish fleet at Trafalgar (1805) so badly that there were no naval actions after that; that the largest British expeditionary force was in French-occupied Spain during the Peninsular War; that prisoners of war gave their parole and were regularly exchanged; that Napoleon was a prisoner at Elba; and that the two men most responsible for defeating Napoleon were Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.

Then you read something like The War for All The Oceans and you find out that your introductory class was, at best, incomplete. Roy and Lesley Adkins follow admirals, captains, ensigns and press ganged sailors through the war from the Battle of the Nile (1798) through Waterloo (1815). It turns out the largest British invasion was aimed at Antwerp but didn't make it, at least in part because the plans were kept secret and the army's medical establishment didn't know they needed to be prepared for malaria. When Napoleon was deposed the first time, the Allies installed him as a sovereign ruling Elba, with French guards serving him. The British had a "sloop" in the Caribbean which was actually a rowboat; it was designated as a sloop as an administrative convenience in dealing with the gun crews on Diamond Rock. And the one of whom Napoleon said "That man made me miss my destiny"? Not Nelson, not the Duke -- it was Sir Sidney Smith.

A good history, well written and interesting.